DODGERS 2017 NEWS/RUMORS/AROUND MLB Thread

Good read: http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-holton-dodgers-plaschke-20170812-story.html

I was at that game and I don't even remember this guy......granted i was 13....so remembering that long ago is tough.

 

reminds me of why i was hoping to catch that sort of magic in paredes
that team was full of those kind of guys
can't say i remember everything holton did but he obviously meant a lot
truly a shame when men can't find their way after things don't go as planned
the best we can do is keep getting up off the floor

 

I would describe Holton's stuff as similar to Stripling's. Average fastball and pretty good 12 to 6 curve.

He was a Dodger minor league lifer who struck gold in that magical season.

 

Glad it worked that year.

But Shumaker and Michael Young types haven't worked out in recent years. Well, not for us. The Giants, yeah. Pat Burrell, Edgar Rentaria, Marco Scutero, Michael Morse, Cody Ross, etc. Freaking A

 

Leary was a starter and a very good one.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/learyti01.shtml

Dodgers rescued both Leary and Tim Belcher, another talented under achiever, off the scrap heap that year.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/b/belchti01.shtml

 

Gota love the article. In it Holton says he misses the smell of pine tar in his glove........LOL!!!!

 

So one thing that is being talked about is the Mets are likely to move Curtis Granderson and it's being mentioned that the Dodgers COULD be one of the teams that are kicking the tires on him. As we are all well aware, Joc has been in another one of his tremendous slumps(apparently the team is a bit worried due to timing) and paired with the question marks surrounding what AGon will be when he gets back, plus the second base conundrum, this would be an interesting acquisition. A return of a somewhat productive AGon and the addition of Granderson would equate to a lineup of 1B AGon, 2B Taylor, LF Granderson and CF Bellinger. I keep calling for Verdugo, but who knows if the FO would take a chance on an inexperienced rookie when they may be able to nab an experienced vet with WS experience, something only one other Dodgers player has.

Looking on the surface, Granderson's overall numbers are ok this season with an OPS of .807 which aligns to an OPS+ of 110. These numbers include a DISASTROUS start to the season for him, but if you look at what he has done since the calendar flipped to May he's sporting a .267/.386/.563 line with 16 HR's in 240 AB's and a roughly 3:2 K:B ratio. The one thing he is not very good at is hitting LHP, which is not a huge deal with our bench, but here are his #'s against the guys he would be facing:
Lester: 59 PA, .296/.339/.537 3 HR
Quintana: 1-4, HR 2 K's, 2 BB
Gio Gonzalez: 44 PA's, .122/.182/.220

Gio, Strasburg(.481 OPS, 29PA's) and the Cardinals main starters have owned him, but those are the only ones that he has struggled against that we could be facing in the NL PO's. The guys he has had success against could be just as important as anything, Scherzer (45 PA's .850 OPS, 2 HR), Arrieta (40 PA's 1.081 OPS, 3 HR), Lackey(50 PA, .768 OPS), Greinke (67 PA, .728 OPS, K 17% of the time, 2 HR). He has done a good job over the years against some guys that we have a tendency to struggle with and could be an interesting option for the club. Another reason we are linked to him is that he is supposed to be one of the best clubhouse guys in the game, so they are not worried that he could come in and mess things up. It will be interesting to see if this jumps into anything more serious or is out there cause the Mets want to potentially drive interest in Granderson and get a better return for him.

 

A couple of other notes;
- There is no timeline for Dayton's return, but keep an eye on this. They've figured out that his mechanics have been out of whack all season which was causing his pitches to flatten out. He thinks they are getting closer to fixing it, but they are not 100% sure he will be ready by the end of the season. This is one where if they fix him and things get interesting in the pen... even more so in the event if any of Watson, Cingrani or Fields start to put it all together.

- AGon, Ethier and Segedin are slated to come of the 60 Day DL's soon, while players like Wilmer Font, Walker Buehler and Alex Verdugo are candidates for 40 man roster which currently sits at 39. So here are some maneuvers that could happen....
- Liberatore to 60 Day DL
- DFA's for Fabio Castillo, Dylan Floro and or Luis Ysla
- Brett Eibner Activated and put on 60 Day DL
- Chris Hatcher dragged out to the middle of a cornfield and shot... or DFA'd
- Something that won't happen is Julio Urias going on the 60 Day DL. As unfortunate as his injury was, it is a good thing that it happened while he was in MiLB. Had it happened while being up with the big club, his FA clock would have kept ticking while on the 60 day DL, but now due to it happening in MiLB, the team still has another year of control over him. They will lose an option year, however.

 

Joc must lead the universe in volatility..gotdamn, it´d mean so much for the club moving forward beyond this season if he were to get some productive post season work under his belt.
Anyway, Re: Granderson..yes, please.
Always been a fan of Grandy and ¨ the way he goes about his business ¨, man is definitely a pro´s pro, can swing the stick, defend well enough..welcome in my book, a true gentleman.
Is he the black Chase Utley? Might be. Lol
But yeah, don´t give a single shit about his link to NYY, just as I didn´t give a shit about Utley´s link to PHI..go add this man.
I can just see LAD/Boston lining up for a WS clash and Grandy busting loose big time in Boston´s little league venue that he´s so familiar with..wonder what his career numbers are there?
Fuck it, here they are..guy has a career .821 OPS in Fenway
Seems like the Mets may have just given away Neil Walker, we´ll see who that PTBNL turns out to be, but maybe LAD can sneak in there and extract Grandy

 

Does Joc get left off the playoff roster in that scenario?

 

1. You can't put any stock into Ethier being a candidate to start on this team. He has 33 plate appearances over the last two seasons and was already a well below average OF'er before back and leg injuries took ahold of him. He is a bench bat, plain and simple.
2. Austin Barnes has played a total of 9 innings in the OF in his entire career. He's not going to start playing there now in the middle of a playoff run.

 

Doubtful, Barnes, Hernandez, Forsythe, Utley and Pederson is probably your bench.